The Discovery of Our Lives
by LiveInLoveAndLaughter
Summary: When the gang moves back to Albuquerque with their kids, they find a box of books as they're cleaning out the Bolton basement. The books chronicle their lives from high school on, some of the stories ring true, others don't. How do they handle their discovery of FanFiction?
1. Chapter 1

_Disclaimer: Clearly I do not own the High School Musical franchise._

_Thank you Ma531419 for permission to use your stories! It's greatly appreciated! _

**Chapter One: Moving In**

"Okay, I understand why y'all are here, but why are _we_ here?" Chad whined as he dropped a heavy box on the ground, causing the settled dust to float around the misty, dim basement.

"Because you're such a wonderful friend." Gabriella cooed at him, "And my brownies and beer don't come until after you help." She reminded him of her bribe.

"And the kids chose the attic." Troy opened the box Chad dropped on the floor earlier.

"And even they manage to do it with less complaining." Taylor pointed out to her husband, "We agreed we'd all help each other move. Remember Chad? Remember how Troy helped you redo our kitchen floor. Without complaining?"

Sharpay Baylor sighed from the rickety chair she sat on in the corner, "Why didn't you buy new houses like Ryan and Kelsi did or like Zeke and I did?" She looked with distaste around the musty basement filled with past residents boxes, "They're cleaner than this."

"Because there is so much more character and history in these houses than in your cookie cutter ones." Jason Cross's wife, Annabel, appeared in the doorway with another box of garbage bags. "Now get up and pitch in Shar," she tossed the box on her lap, "stop being a princess."

Gabriella laughed from her corner of the large basement in the new Bolton home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She was thrilled to be back in her hometown, or the city she deemed her hometown, with her husband Troy and their three kids, Emma Rose, Samuel Lamar and Troy Alexander Jr. What was even more exciting was that all her friends were back with their kids. Somehow the Wildcats still existed. And now they were taking over East High School again.

"So the kids are all set up in the attic. I think they're actually enjoying themselves. Apparently there are a lot of fun things in your attic." Kelsi and Ryan appeared, followed by Zeke and Jason who were holding trays with snacks and drinks. "They're eating lunch up there." Kelsi stated with disbelief.

"Great! Then we get a break too!" Chad tripped over a stack of books Troy pulled out of the box trying to get to the food Zeke and Jason had just set down on the two antique tables Gabriella wanted to bring upstairs. "Damn it Troy!" He stood up "Why'd you leave those books in the middle of the room?" He asked, rubbing his knee.

Troy didn't answer, instead he continued to flip through the book in his hand. It looked like a very old journal. "Troy, babe, what are you reading?" Gabriella came to sit next to him on the ground. Troy's complexion was extremely white, like what he was reading was upsetting him.

"Troy?" Gabriella repeated his name.

"It's our life, but it's not." He looked up, "It's us , but it isn't our lives. But it is."

"Um dude, I think you've inhaled too much dust." Jason leaned against a wall.

"And that's coming from Jason." Sharpay pointed out.

"No, but it's so, here look!" He thrust the diary at Gabriella.

She looked at the cover of the book, it was blank. Opening it up, it said 'High School Musical FanFiction.' She looked over at her husband, "What is FanFiction?"

Gabriella turned the page and saw a table of contents, "This is like a table of contents I think, they're all story titles 'A Life of Fights,' 'A Wildcat Reunion,' 'Beautiful Fascination.'" She paused, "And I guess these are author names, 'msaunders,' 'ma531419,' 'xxxtroyella4everxxx,' 'gmontezgirl,' 'troypaylove.'" She scrunched up her nose, "Okay let's see what this says." She turned the next page, "Okay let's see what this says:

'Chapter 1: A Christmas Tradition: Gabriella Montez tossed her purse carelessly on the side table of her house. She didn't understand why they couldn't just spend the entire day together. Was it so hard to ask for their families to get along? Apparently so. His car wasn't in the driveway so he was still stuck at his parents' house.'" She paused from reading.

"Skip to chapter two. I want some action!" Sharpay tucked her legs up under her.

Gabriella nodded and flipped a few pages: "Chapter 2: Payback: Sixteen year-old Troy Bolton surveyed the room ruefully. Contrary to popular belief he wasn't much of a party animal. He didn't enjoy getting drunk off his ass, but, as every teenager does, he would do it from time to time. Captain of East High School in Los Angeles, California's basketball team, he simply was treated as a god. And the god's goal this year: to take back the championship title from their rivalry school, West High School. Troy's eyes skimmed over the crowd. His naturally bright blue eyes darkened at the sight in front of him. Zeke Baylor was there. Zeke Baylor was the king of West High. Captain of their basketball team, he had led the Knights to three back to back championships, and Troy was ready to take that title away from him."

"Wait!" Zeke raised his hands up, "I did not go to West High!"

Gabriella shrugged, "Let's see what else there is in here." She flipped around for a bit before settling on a story, "This one is called 'Colorado Ski Lodge'," she cleared her throat, "Chapter 1: The Colorado Ski Lodge: Gabriella Montez. Categorized as a nerd. Quiet by nature. Long midnight black locks that came down her back. Big mocha eyes that held a glimmer of light. A smile that could light up an entire room if anyone bothered to notice her. Beautiful in a natural way. She didn't need make up, her features were naturally flawless." She snorted, "If only this person knew!"

Sharpay groaned and grabbed the book, "Let's see if these people write anything juicy!" She flipped around in the same story Gabriella had opened. "Troy grinned, flipping them over so he was leaning over her, 'Because I'm Troy Bolton and I know everything. Plus you're amazing. How could you not be great?' 'Cause I'm not amazing.' Gabriella groaned as nerves coursed through her body. Troy sighed and leaned down, nuzzling his nose into the crook of her neck, 'Well I think you're amazing, and I'm the only one that matters right?" He felt her breath quicken and began to lazily drag his tongue over frantically beating pulse. 'Troy...' Gabriella let out a small moan."

Gabriella snatched the book out of Sharpay's hand, "Okay that's quite enough of that." She squirmed uneasily next to Troy, "The last thing we need is to hear about is our sex life."

"Well, our fake sex life." Troy grimaced.

"Okay well wait, is there just you guys in here?" Chad grabbed the book up and started flipping through it. His mouth dropped and he grinned, "'Oh Zeke...' Sharpay moaned as he began picking up the pace. 'Faster...' she met him thrust for thrust as he obeyed, capturing her mouth in a mind blowing kiss.'" He laughed as Zeke grabbed the book out of his hand.

"Chad! That's really inappropriate!" He grimaced as he looked down. "Who wrote this stuff." He flipped mindlessly through the book, stopping briefly to read something. "Oh my God!" He looked up between Kelsi, Ryan, Jason, and Annabel before he started reading, "Kelsi moaned, giving Jason the chance to slip his tongue into her warm mouth. As their tongues dueled, Kelsi stood on her toes so she could drive her hands even deeper into his hair. Jason slipped his hands under tank top and began caressing her flat stomach. Everywhere he touched felt like it was on fire as his lips moved from her mouth to her neck, lightly nipping here and there until he found her sensitive spot. Stopping to brand her as his own." He paused, smiling at the look of shock on everyone's faces before picking up a few paragraphs down, "Smiling, Jason gently shoved her back down. He spread her legs open as he kissed her hungrily before gently sliding inside of her."

"You had sex with my wife?" Ryan spun around to face Jason.

Jason held his hands up defensively, "Dude I have _never _liked Kelsi like that. I never liked any girls like that until I met Annabel in college. I promise. Kelsi is like my little sister. Right Kels?" He looked towards Kelsi.

She was pale, but nodding, "That's so disgusting. No offense Jase, but I would never, I could never, I," She paused, "what is that?" She pointed to the book.

Troy shrugged, "There are a ton of books in here. They're all the same." He paused, "This is way creepy. These people know things about our lives they shouldn't know."

"And then they take the facts and twist them." Jason piped up from the corner. He was still standing as far away from Ryan as possible.

Sharpay, who had picked up another journal screeched and dropped it.

"What?!" The room chorused at us.

She looked at Troy and pointed, then she pointed at herself. Her mouth opened and closed for a few moments. "Shar?" Zeke kneeled beside her and took the book from her hands. He looked down at what she had been reading and then looked up, "Troy and you?"

"What about us?" Troy asked.

"You two. Together." Zeke looked between his wife and Troy, "Like together together. Like you and Brie are together. Like Shar and I are together." He elaborated.

Troy stared at him blankly before turning to his wife, "You know that, Shar and I, we would, never."

Gabriella laughed, "Yeah I know babe. That's just. That's," she looked down, "not the worst thing that could be written." She picked up the book in her lap to read it more closely. "Ew!" She screeched. "Ryan and Sharpay?!"

"WHAT?!" The twins turned to look at her.

"Okay, that's fiction." Ryan grabbed the book to flip through it. He shuddered and dropped it.

"Wait, what?" Sharpay picked up the book, her face was scrunched up as she flipped through the story and into the next one. "Oh my God. Troy and Ryan?" She stared at the two boys.

"Okay, I think we need to stop reading these." Kelsi stepped forward. "I think these need to go to the police. Before our kids see them. They're just traumatizing." She began picking up the discarded books and put them back in the box.

"That's true," Annabel spoke up for the first time since the books had been found, "if JJ or Corey see them they'll be really confused. Especially with the Jason and Kelsi stories."

"All the kids would be upset by these books." Gabriella stood up and brushed off her pants. "Let's take these to the police today."

HSMHSMHSM

"Kids!" Troy called from the bottom of the attic stairs.

"Quick, hide the box!" Sam Bolton instructed his older sister Emma. "Mom and Dad can't know we found these diaries."

"Wait, shouldn't we at least show them to our parents?" Christine Evans asked.

"Absolutely not!" Cordelia Baylor nearly shrieked, "We need to read through all of them before we show them to our parents."

"That sounds like such a bad idea." Chad Danforth Jr. crossed his arms, "From what we know about our parents they sound like they're not true, so we should hand them over to the police."

"Ugh, Chad, can you not sound like a like a lawyer for two minutes." Emma asked.

"This is really confusing." Jason Cross Jr. commented flipping through one of the books they'd found hidden in a desk in the attic. "I didn't know my dad dated Aunt Kelsi."

"Well according to this book, Mom totally screwed Uncle Troy, which is just weird." Cordelia stated offhandedly.

"Ew, how can you talk about our parents like that?" Sam asked. "I don't even want to think about Dad screwing Mom."

"As if you don't hear them!" Troy Jr. rolled his eyes, "They're always moaning in their room. What do you think they're doing?"

Sam and Emma both put their hands over their ears. "Stop talking TJ!"

"Kids?" Troy was now standing at the top of the stairs. "What's going on up here?"

"Nothing!" Ten voices called out.

"Yeah right. I'll believe that when I see it." Troy rolled his eyes, "Okay so we're all running out. Please don't burn the house down. We just bought it." He turned, "Call if you need us, we'll be back in just a few minutes."

"Yes Daddy, we promise, no wild parties." Emma skipped over and gave her father a kiss on the cheek. "Love you."

"Love you." TJ and Sam mocked, shrinking away under her withering glare.

Troy rolled his eyes at his three kids, all who were way too much like him. "Well alright. Love all y'all."

"Love you!" All ten responded.

HSMHSMHSM

"What were they doing?" Sharpay asked, as Troy came back downstairs.

"I have no idea. They were definitely up to something though." Troy rolled his eyes, "Kids."

"Well as long as they don't burn the house down." Gabriella sighed, "Let's just go get rid of these things. Maybe we can find out who stalked us all through high school."

"And college." Jason waved a book in the air. "This one has stories from when we were in college." Everyone stared at him, "Of course not all of them are true. One story is called 'UCLA Adventures;' however some of them are running true to form."

"Great." Annabel sighed, "Please tell me I didn't make any of these stories."

"Not exactly baby, I've got random girls it looks like. When I'm not with Kelsi. Then Ryan has random girls. When he's not gay."

"For the last and final time, I am not gay. I never was gay. I just didn't want to argue with Sharpay in high school." Ryan frowned.

"Oh right, make me the big bad wolf!" Sharpay threw her fists up in anger.

"No one was blaming you Pay." Gabriella sighed and rubbed her temples.

"Holy crap, we're like retired grandparents in this one." Zeke waved one of the books up.

Sharpay snatched the book from Zeke's hands. "I have wrinkles!" She shrieked.

"Who the fuck cares!" Gabriella grabbed the book from her best friend. "Can we please go to the police station now?"

Troy nodded, "Okay let's just go now." He picked up the box, shoving the last book, that was in his wife's little hands, back in the box.

HSMHSMHSM

Read and Review

XOXO

MAS


	2. Family Flow Chart - Information Only

_**This is just to help me, as well as everyone else out when it comes to which kid belongs to which couple and their ages. I also included nicknames for the boys who are juniors so everyone will know who I'm talking about when I say TJ or JJ or RJ or CJ. Chapter Two will follow shortly. It's currently a work-in-progress. **_

_**XOXO**_  
_**MAS**_

Troy & Gabriella Bolton

Emma Rose (16) Troy Alexander (TJ) (16) Samuel Lamar (14)

Chad & Taylor Danforth

Chad Michael (CJ) (15) Elena Catherine (12)

Zeke & Sharpay Baylor

Cordelia Jane (16)

Ryan & Kelsi Evans

Christine Ann (14) Ryan Michael (RJ) (14)

Jason & Annabel Cross

Jason Marcus (JJ) (16) Corey Riley (12)


	3. Chapter 2

_Disclaimer: Clearly I do not own the High School Musical franchise_

**Chapter Two: The Twisted Narrative **

Troy pushed the front door of the police headquarters open. He'd been rehearsing how he would explain this to the cops in his head the entire 15 minute drive. He just hoped Chad would keep his mouth shut. If anyone would say something stupid to make them seem crazy, it was Chad. And he could tell by the look on Gabriella's face that she definitely agreed with that.

Gabriella kept looking at Chad, as if she could will him to say nothing that would make them seem insane, like they'd written these books themselves to draw attention. Granted, they did not have the reputation to support that at all.

She followed Troy to the front counter, with the rest of their friends trailing behind. _Maybe they should've checked the rest of the basement and the attic for other books. Otherwise they'll be making a ton of trips to the police station. The attic! _Gabriella blanched. _What if the kids found more books in the attic and started to read them? What if they thought this was all true? What if they thought their dad was gay at some point? Or slept with Sharpay? Or was abused? Or if she was abused? Or if their grandparents were these horrible monsters? Or if East High was an awful school? This could not get any worse. _

"Are you alright Ella?" Kelsi wrapped an arm around her waist, "You're very pale."

Gabriella forced herself to nod, "Yeah I was just thinking about all the bad things that could happen if the kids found these books."

Kelsi nodded, understanding Gabriella's fear, "Well the good news is they won't because the books are here." _Yes, but are they all here? _Gabriella wondered.

"Can I help y'all?" The officer at the front desk drawled.

Troy nodded, "I don't really know how to report this exactly, it's a rather strange occurrence." He looked at his friends, "My wife and I just moved back here and bought a house. We were cleaning out the basement when we came across these books." He placed the box on the officer's desk. "We flipped through them and" he tried to think of how to word it so he didn't sound insane, "they're stories that we've never seen, but they're about our lives and the lives of some people in Albuquerque who we were associated with. Most of them seem to track our lives during high school; others look at college and after. Most appear to be fiction, but some ring very true. And they all seem to center around romantic relationships, most of which never happened." The look on the officer's face told Troy everything he needed to know. He thought they were insane.

"Can I please have your name sir?" The officer asked.

Troy nodded, "Troy Bolton."

The look the officer gave Troy indicated that he remembered them and most likely the entire group. He was the high school basketball star who went on to play college ball at UC Berkley, the boy who brought East High School together with music, with the help of a new girl, the boy who went on to play for the L.A. Lakers. Now he was back in town.

"Alright Mr. Bolton, now I realize you've just recently moved back into town and I don't know how they do things in Los Angeles, but we don't tolerate crank reports."

Gabriella stepped forward, "Excuse me, officer, my name is Gabriella Montez Bolton, and I can assure this is not a joke. We really don't want our children finding these books. They're really quite unsettling." She smiled, it was a timid smile, but it was sexy and convincing. It was what she used to get what she wanted from someone.

"Mrs. Bolton," the officer clearly struggled to gain his composure, "this does seem rather farfetched."

Gabriella nodded, putting a restraining hand on Chad's shoulder, it was clear he was about to speak, "I realize that officer, if someone could just take a look at the books. I can promise you we did not write them, we just found them."

Jason spoke up, "We'd all be willing to submit our handwriting for testing."

"And you are?" The officer looked at Jason.

"Jason Cross, I'm a tax attorney at Purcell Flanagan downtown." He held his hand out to the officer to shake as he introduced himself in his most authoritative tone.

"Officer Reynolds." The man shook his hand. "Well Mr. Cross, I suppose we can take a look at the books." He still seemed skeptical, but he was at least willing to take a look, more than likely because of their reputations from high school and how successful they had been since they left.

Leading them into the precinct, Officer Reynolds opened the door to a conference room. "I'll be right back with someone who can help you."

HSMHSMHSM

"Okay, pull the box out Ems." JJ looked over at his girlfriend, "Come on, let's just see what all this is about."

Emma nodded and skipped across the room, where she had kicked the box out of the way before her father came in. Leaning over, she pretty much dragged the heavy cardboard into the center of the room. She sat down and pulled out one of the books, motioning for everyone to join her. "Let's see what this says." She scanned the handwritten table of contents until a story title struck her, "How about 'Runaway'?" She suggested.

"Does it matter which story you choose? Just start reading." Cordelia snapped.

"Cordy, please be patient." TJ gave his girlfriend a stern look. She just rolled her eyes.

"Now if everyone is ready, I'm going to read 'Runaway'" Emma looked at everyone, "good then." She flipped to the page and cleared her throat,

"Gabriella Montez, a high school junior got out of bed wincing. She hated her father. Ever since her mom died in a boating accident her dad had gone crazy.

FLASHBACK

It was July, the summer before her junior year and Gabby was sitting at her best friend, Christine Taylor's beach house with all her other friends. "It's a bummer that it's raining." Tess complained

"Yea, but hey, we've got tons of movies!" Tyler replied, giddy as a school boy.

"And tons of junk food!" Cameron said with a laugh. Because of the pouring rain and lightening the teenagers were forced to stay inside, but they were determined to make the best of it.

About 20 minutes into _The Notebook_, which the girls forced the guys to watch, Greg Montez knocked on the condo door. He took Gabby into the hallway and told her that her mom had died in a boating accident. Her company had a lunch trip out to Outback Crab Shack and the boat exploded, killing everyone.

END OF FLASHBACK

That's all that Gabby could remember of that day. In November her dad began drinking excessively, but somehow managed to still pull himself together for work. For the next month Gabby kept it together, but in January that changed: her dad began to beat her. Suddenly she began to disappear, she stopped her extracurricular activities and her grades slipped from headmaster's list to honor roll, to toying with academic probation. All of her friends and teachers were extremely worried, but no one said anything."

Emma paused and looked around the room.

TJ was the first to speak. "That's really intense."

"It's not true is it?" Sam looked around, "I mean we've never met Mom's parents."

"Well didn't her mom die way before we were born? And she doesn't talk to her dad." Chad piped up.

"So then this story is totally plausible. That could be why Mom doesn't talk to him anymore." Emma looked around. Slamming the book shut she said, "I don't want to know what happens."

"Well I do." Elena reached over and snatched it from her hands, opening it up, she flipped to the end of the story and frowned, "it isn't complete."

"Huh?" There was a chorus of confusion.

"The story," she motioned to the book, "it's not completed. Like the author didn't know what to do or got too busy and just dropped it." She held the book out and it passed around the group. "Do you think a lot of the stories are incomplete?"

RJ shrugged, "Who knows. These are clearly not written by Aunt Gabi or Aunt Taylor, they'd never leave anything unfinished."

"I want to know who these authors are." Cordelia's eyes swept down the list of strange names, "They sound like usernames."

"Do you think these could've been online?" Emma opened up another book. "Hey, this one is different." Everyone faced her, "They're called oneshots; they're stories that are one chapter long. And they're all set to songs." She paused, "Wanna hear one?"

"Duh!" Cordelia slammed her own book shut and sat at attention.

Emma began, "Whatever It Takes, the song is by a group called Lifehouse:

Troy Bolton sat in the apartment that he shared with Chad Danforth and Zeke Baylor. He sighed. "I can't believe it's over." He thought, "Five years and it's over." He sighed again, picked up a book from his nightstand and threw it across the room. It collided with the door, causing a loud bang.

Chad and Zeke sat silently in the living room. Troy had just told them the news, they were shocked, they didn't know whether to be mad a Troy or Brie.

They watched for a week as Troy took a 'sick' week off from work and did nothing at home. On the sixth night of him not leaving the house they watched as he donned his coat and shoes and stormed out of the apartment."

Emma paused. "I think this part is the song, the different color, I guess I'll make up a tune to sing it to." She took a deep breath,

"A strangled smile fell from your face

It kills me that I hurt you this way

Troy walked into the gates of the all too familiar park. He hadn't been there in weeks, "Since before it happened." He thought bitterly

The worst part is that I didn't even know

Now there's a million reasons for you to go

But if you can find a reason to stay

"I need to make this right, right now." Troy mumbled to himself. He walked, out of the park and back onto the street. He walked up to the familiar apartment building and rang the bell for apartment 19. He waited until he heard an answer.

"Yes?" It was Sharpay's voice, "Great," he thought "she'll never let me in."

"Sharpay?" He hesitated slightly.

"What do you want Bolton?" she hissed

"To talk to her." He pleaded.

"Go to hell." That was the end of that conversation. Troy sighed and turned around. He walked, aimlessly, needing to think.

I'll do whatever it takes

To turn this around

I know what's at stake

I know that I've let you down

And if you give me a chance

Believe that I can change

He kept walking, listening to the heels of some girl clattering behind him, constant. He didn't pay it any mind though. "Troy" he heard his name gasped out. He turned and found her standing behind him, trying to catch her breath."

Emma paused for a breath before saying, "Okay, so there's no way these actually happened. I mean come on. Life doesn't happen in song."

"Why don't we each take a book or two and start flipping through them, then we can determine what's in all of them and reconvene before our parents get back." CJ stood up and began distributing books around the room.

HSMHSMHSM

Troy paced the small conference room while they waited for the officer assigned to look through the books to come help them.

"Troy, you're making me nauseous," Sharpay whined, "stop pacing."

The door opening stopped Troy from replying, "Good afternoon, I'm Officer Chris Moses." He looked up, "What can I, Troy? Troy Bolton?" His eyes scanned the room, "And the rest of the Wildcats."

Troy grinned and walked over to shake his hand, "Chris Moses. No one would've made me believe you became a cop."

Gabriella hopped up and moved across the room, "How are you Chris?" She asked. Chris had been on the basketball team with the boys in high school and had been her locker buddy her two years at East High School.

"I'm doing well. Janae and I got married. We have two kids, 15 and 11. I guess we all had to grow up, huh?" He shoved his hands in his pockets.

Troy nodded his agreement, "Yeah we've got 16 year old twins and a 14 year old." Troy grinned, "We'll have to do a BBQ and really catch up one night."

"That sounds great man, so what is this Reynolds tells me about books?" Chris walked over to the conference room table and stared into the box filled with books.

"They're hand-written." Kelsi piped up, "And they're about us. You're actually in one of them." Gabriella rummaged through the box until she found the book with the story she was looking for. "We all live in DC and all of us except or Zeke are writers who work in the same building. You work in the cubicle next to Troy." She held the book out for him to see.

He took it from her and scanned the pages. He frowned as he read through it quickly, "None of y'all wrote these?" He asked.

The ten shook their heads. Ryan spoke up, "You know us Chris. You know we'd never write anything so twisted and then report it to the police. We brought the box down here so that our kids don't see them. We don't want them thinking we lived twisted lives, or sang at the drop of a hat, or that East High is some horrible place to go to school."

Chris nodded, "Okay, well leave the box with us and we'll look through it to see if we can find anything. Also, if you could provide us with the paper work that details who the previous owners of the house were, that would be great, they may know something. We'll look up the deed history and find out how many different people have owned it since we were in school." He stood up from his chair, "We'll contact you if we have any more information or need anything else." He held his hand out to Troy to shake, "I'll give you a call Troy, and you can pass the word onto everyone else."

Troy nodded and opened up his wallet, dropping a business card on the table. Picking up a pen, he wrote his cell phone number on the back, "Sounds good. I'm the new U of A basketball coach if you need anything else."

"Of course you are man, only the best." Chris slapped Troy on the back, "And I'll call you to set up that BBQ. Janae and the kids would love that."

HSMHSMHSM

"Did you guys hear that?" Emma looked up from the book she'd been engrossed it. It was creepy. Her dad was dating Aunt Sharpay, but ended up with her mom. It was gross to think about him with Aunt Sharpay at all.

"Hear what?" Corey asked looking up from the book she'd been reading.

"A car." Emma paused and put her finger to her lips, indicating everyone should be silent. The slamming of multiple doors tipped the teenagers off that their parents were home. "Quick, we need to hide these. They quickly threw the books back in the box and shoved it behind a dresser. "We'll come back for them later."

Standing, they all rushed downstairs to greet their parents at the door. "Hey mom, hey dad." Emma sounded breathless.

"Hey baby girl, what's up?" Troy looked at the ten nervous, out of breath teenagers. "What have you all been doing?"

"Nothing." They answered together.

"Just you know, cleaning and talking." CJ responded.

Taylor raised her eyebrows at her son. "Of course CJ." She looked at Annabel and shook her head, that's definitely not what they were up to.

HSMHSMHSM

Read & Review

XOXO  
MAS


	4. Chapter 3

_Disclaimer: Clearly I do not own the High School Musical franchise_

_**I was asked this question a few days ago, quite rudely actually, so I'm going to address it now: How many chapters will be in your stories? The short answer is I don't know. The long answer is I have a vague idea of what I want to happen in each of my stories; however, I have no idea how long it will take to get there. For now I am focusing on consistently updating the five stories I have going. Everything else will just come. I did not realize it mattered how many chapters a story had, just as long as it was completed. Now, onto more fun and important things, like Chapter Three! **_

_**XOXO  
MAS**_

Side Note: I realize in every country the school system runs a bit differently so this will show what grade everyone is in:

Emma – Junior Year

TJ – Junior Year

Sammy – Freshman Year

CJ – Sophomore Year

Cordelia – Junior Year

Christine – Freshman Year

RJ – Freshman Year

JJ – Junior Year

Corey and Elena are both 12 in the story so they are in 7th grade at the middle school, therefore when things happen at the school in the story during school hours they are not there. I realize there are a ton of characters to keep up with here, I apologize.

**Chapter Three: First Day**

"Okay kids," Taylor stood up, "I think it's time everyone heads home. Big day tomorrow. First day at East High."

Chad followed her up, leaning around her to grab her purse for her. "Yup, come on CJ and Elena."

Troy nodded, "Yeah I think it's time you three headed upstairs." He pointed to his kids, "And you two need to untangle yourselves Emma Rose and JJ." He pointed to his daughter Emma who was sitting wrapped up in Jason Jr.'s lap. He frowned. That wasn't supposed to happen yet.

"Oh Daddy," Emma danced over to him "like you and Mom never did that when you were our age."

Troy's eyes widened. He did not want his little girl doing what he and his wife did when they were sixteen. It was way more than cuddling on the sofa. Way, way more. And his little girl was not allowed to do that until she was thirty.

Gabriella snorted, handling the situation much better than her husband. "Your father and I have decided you're not allowed to do what we did until you're thirty." She drained the last of her wine.

Emma covered her ears, "Don't want to hear about what you and Dad or any of you for that matter, did when you were our age."

"Younger." Sharpay piped up, draining the rest of Zeke's beer since her wine glass was empty.

"Seriously Mom?" Cordelia grimaced.

"Okay, that's enough of this conversation." Kelsi stood up and offered Ryan her hand. It's definitely time to call it a night. "Zeke, I'm assuming you're better off to drive than Shar is?"

Zeke picked up Sharpay's purse and hauled her to her feet, "Yeah she drank most of my beer anyways." He glared down at her playfully. She giggled in response and slapped his chest.

"Mom! You're acting like a horny teenager!" Cordelia whined.

HSMHSMHSM

When everyone had left, Emma and Gabriella stood alone in the living room clearing away the empty wine glass, beer bottles and plates.

"Why is it," Emma broke the silence, "that we always find out things we don't want to know about Aunt Shar when she drinks?"

Gabriella laughed, "She's an open book about her sex life when she's sober. When she's drunk she wants to a play on about how, when and where she and Uncle Zeke get it on." Gabriella scrunched up her face.

"It's so gross." Emma whined.

"Hey, how do you think all of you guys ended up here? It's not because we're a celibate crowd." Gabriella laughed at her daughter, "Besides, you don't seriously expect me to believe that you and Jason are completely hands off."

Emma looked at her mother mortified. "Mother!" She nearly screeched, "We haven't, I mean I haven't, I mean" she turned a bright red. She and her mom had always had an open relationship, but this was a little bit much, "We haven't done it yet." She finally settled on the phrase.

Gabriella wasn't shocked that they hadn't yet. Yet being the key word. "Just tell me when you do. I'd rather know than not know. Just so I can start planning for a grandbaby if I need to."

"Mom!" Emma looked at her mother indignantly, "1. I'm not an idiot, that'd be Jason. 2. You sound way too much like Aunt Shar!"

"I've known her since I was sixteen Ems, it was bound to happen one day." Gabriela shrugged and tossed the pillow on the floor back onto the sofa. "Now off to bed. Big day tomorrow."

Emma nodded and kissed her mother's cheek. _How did such a nice evening turn into such an embarrassing one? Oh yeah, that'd be Dad's fault. _Emma hesitated at the foot of the stairs. "Mom?" She finally called out. Gabriella looked at her in response, "Did you or Dad ever, you know, hook up or date anyone else?"

Gabriella looked at her daughter quizzically, "Like before we met? Sure."

"No I mean, like did you ever say date Uncle Ryan or did Dad ever date Aunt Kelsi or something?" Emma diverted her gaze as her mother's stare became so intense.

"Um no, none of us ever dated each other. Aunt Shar had a crush on your dad for a few years, but he wasn't ever interested in her. Why?"

"Just wondering. Night Momma." Gabriella watched as Emma fled up to her room. That question wouldn't have bothered Gabriella usually, but since the discovery of the books earlier in the day, she couldn't help but wonder if the kids had found another one and that had brought that particular question on.

Shaking her head, she trudged up the steps to her bedroom. "Troy?" She called out, walking over to the dresser as she took her jewelry off, "I'm beginning to wonder if the kids found another box. Maybe in the attic?"

Troy came out of the bathroom, a toothbrush shoved in his mouth, "Why?"

"Emma just asked me if we ever dated other Wildcats or just each other." Gabriella ripped her shirt over her head and opened up the drawer with Troy's old t-shirts in it that she slept in.

The toothbrush dropped from Troy's mouth. "Seriously?" He asked, toothpaste slipping down his chin.

"Ew, Troy, finish brushing your teeth then we'll talk." Gabriella pushed past him and into the bathroom to brush her own teeth.

When they were sitting in bed a few minutes later the reproached the conversation, "So you think maybe there are more books in the house?"

Gabriella sighed and fidgeted with her fingers, her nervous quirk, "I started thinking that after we were already at the police station."

Troy nodded and rubbed his chin. He stared down at his wife and finally took her tiny hands in his to get her to calm down, "Hey, how about this, we'll search the house tomorrow afternoon? We'll send the kids off to Shar's and go over everything."

She nodded and leaned over and kissed him, "Sounds good Coach Bolton. Now let's get some rest, we all have a big first day tomorrow."

Troy smiled and rolled on top of her, "Well Mrs. Bolton, I was thinking maybe we could rest in a few hours." He slipped his hand under her nightshirt, loving hearing her giggle as he pinched her side.

HSMHSMHSM

Emma rolled over and looked at her clock. She watched as it ticked from 2:59 am to 3:00 am. It seemed she'd watched every minute roll by. _Mom so knows something was up with those questions. Does she know about the books? Does that make them true? Did she and Dad hide them in the attic so we wouldn't see them? Why wouldn't they hide them in their room them? Where did they come from? Who wrote them? Why do Mom and Dad have kids in some of them who aren't us? Dad has a lot of sons named Tyler, I wonder why Tyler, is it because it starts with a 'T' like Troy does? _She groaned and sat up. "I am so not sleeping tonight apparently." She muttered angrily.

Turning on her bedside lamp, she threw the covers back and got out of bed. Thrusting her closet door open, she heaved the box out of its hiding place and placed it on her bed. Opening it up, she pulled out a book she hadn't flipped through and began reading. "Beautiful Fascination," she mumbled the title to herself as she flipped open "Chapter One: Welcome to East High, Little Lady."

Emma didn't realize it was almost 6am by the time she'd finished the entire book in front of her. In the first story, her mom arrived to East High the last semester of her senior year. She had a wonderful family and was a beautiful dancer. She met her dad on the first day of school and he was a bad boy, he toyed with her and played games with her until they finally ended up falling in love. The next story really centered around her Aunt Sharpay. Aunt Shar figured out Troy and Gabriella were dating and set a plan based off of a t.v. show she'd never even heard of to force Troy and Gabriella to admit their feelings. In the third story, Troy and Gabriella went to rival schools and planned to seduce each other to ensure a championship victory, but ended up falling in love. By then end of "The Championship Plan," Emma had deduced none of the stories were true. And she did this with a few simple facts:

Fact: Mom started at East High her junior year after winter break.

Fact: Mom was not a dancer, she barely has any rhythm

Fact: Mom and Dad fell in love at a ski lodge in Colorado and then ended up going to school together. It was their favorite story to tell. They did not start dating after college.

Fact: Aunt Taylor was a lawyer not a doctor.

Fact: Mom, Aunt Kelsi, Uncle Zeke and Uncle Jason went to East High, not West High

Fact: Uncle Jason didn't meet Aunt Annabel until he went to U of A with Uncle Chad for college

Shutting the book with a thud, Emma looked at her alarm clock. It was almost 6am. Putting the book back in the box, she stared at her open closet door. If her mom actually suspected something, there as a chance she'd search the house, including her room. She needed a better hiding place. She looked around her room helplessly. Her mom could search anywhere in here and in TJ's room and in Sammy's room. She groaned. _Where can I hide them? _

An idea suddenly struck her. Grabbing up her school bag, she began to put the books inside of it. She'd hide them in her school locker. Realizing quickly that there were too many books to put in her own bag, she collected them in her arms and opened her room door. Looking in the hallway, she noted no one else was wandering around. She darted into TJ's room and shook him awake.

"Ems, it's too early." He mumbled and rolled over.

"TJ wake up it's an emergency."

"A real emergency or an Emma emergency?" He asked, sitting up.

"So last night I asked Mom about dad dating Aunt Shar and she got really suspicious so I think we should hide the books. I think she may check the house. We're taking them to school and putting them in our lockers. I'm shoving some in your backpack."

"Whatever Em." TJ pulled the covers back over his head. Emma just shook her head and opened up his backpack that was in a chair in the corner. Shoving some of the books in she quietly opened his door and looked down the hallway again. This time she ran into Sammy's room.

"Sammy?" She nudged him with the tip of a book.

"Emma I'm trying to pretend my alarm isn't about to go off. Go away." He hit the book. "Ow, what is that?"

"It's one of the books from the box." Emma whispered.

"Why is it hitting me?" He didn't even look up at her.

"We have to hide them."

"They were hidden in your closet." He mumbled.

"No at school, where Mom and Dad can't find them. I'm putting them in your backpack." She turned to survey the room. It was a chaotic mess. Where was his backpack?

"Under the desk." He muttered.

Crawling on her hands and knees, Emma pulled it out from underneath Sammy's desk and shoved the books in. Opening his room door, she surveyed the mess one last time before running down the hall to her room. She shut her door just in time to hear her parents' room door open and her dad talking to her mom.

HSMHSMHSM

When Emma came down for breakfast an hour later, she could tell her brothers were not happy with her. They both glared at her and refused to even say good morning.

"Boys?" Troy looked at his sons, "What's going on?" He asked them.

"Nothing." They mumbled simultaneously.

If it was just TJ who was angry, Emma would've guessed it was for waking him up early, but since Sammy wasn't happy either, that meant that TJ told him Emma talked to their mother. About something they all wanted kept a secret. She tried not to groan, _Cordelia is going to kill me. _

"Emma, aren't you hungry?" Gabriella looked at her daughter who had her head on the kitchen table.

"No." She mumbled.

"What happened with you three last night? Are y'all fighting?" Troy looked at all of them.

"No." Came the simultaneous response.

"Okay then, well I'm going to head off to work. Good luck at school everyone." He dropped a kiss on Gabriella's cheek, "Good luck on your first day teaching." He mumbled against her hair. "Love you."

"Love you too Troy."

"Let's go." TJ stood up, downing the last of his orange juice. He pushed the chair away from the table and picked up his backpack, which looked heavier than it should be on the first day of school to Gabriella. "Emma, Sammy if you're riding with me, you're coming."

"We're coming hold your horses TJ." Emma picked up her own full bag.

"Don't tell me about impatience." TJ warned her. _If she'd been patient and waited they could've had answers before they talked to their parents. _

Sammy rolled his eyes, "Okay knock it off you two. Let's just get today over with." He pushed past the two of them and headed out the front door.

The car ride to school was silent. Emma kept her eyes trained out the window. TJ focused on driving. Sammy plugged his iPhone headphones in and listened to music to drown out the silence. When they met everyone at Cordelia's locker, at her insistence, 20 minutes later, they were still silent.

"Okay, what's up with you three?" Cordelia looked at each of them. "Who did what and can we stop this bullshit? We have planning to do."

"Emma told Mom." TJ pointed at his twin sister.

"About the books?" JJ stared at his girlfriend in disbelief, "Even I knew not to do that!"

"See!" CJ looked at her, "Even JJ knew not to do that!"

Emma stomped her foot and stared her twin brother down, "I did not tell her. I asked a question that might help us and she suspected something. It was like they already knew about the books." Emma defended herself. "I cannot believe you're mad at me about this TJ. You're such an ass." She hit him on the arm. People were beginning to stare, wondering about the new kids who were yelling, "And for the record, I think I saved us. Just wait until Mom goes snooping around the house. At least now she won't find the damn books because they're in our lockers."

"You brought them to school?" Christine stared at them. "What if they're found here?"

"They're not about us. Who the fuck cares?" Emma groaned. "Look, no one will go through our lockers. All we have to do is keep the books hidden when we're home if we take them home. Or just go through them secretly here."

"You know," RJ started, "our parents had a spot. A secret spot we can use. I should be able to find it. It was a rooftop garden. How difficult can that be to find?"

"Fine." Sammy looked over at TJ who still hadn't spoken, "We all go searching during our free periods. When someone finds it send a mass text with directions and we'll all meet there at lunch. Clear?"

Everyone nodded, "TJ." Cordelia sent him a warning look, "Troy Alexander Bolton, Jr." He still didn't respond, "So help me TJ if you don't whip your attitude into shape I'll"

"You'll what Cordy?" He challenged her.

"Do you really want to know?" She asked. He wavered under her glance and didn't answer. The bell rang, indicating it was time for homeroom. "Lunch." Cordelia stated, shutting her locker with a definitive bang.

"So did we all manage to get the same homeroom?" Christine held her schedule out. "I know RJ and I have someone named Mrs. Darbus?" A chorus of yeses told Christine they all had Mrs. Darbus. "That's awesome, it will make the first period of the day so much better."

"Let's go find our classroom." Emma hooked her arm through JJ's and smiled up at him, "Hopefully it will be a good first day."

HSMHSMHSM

Cathleen Darbus looked through her attendance sheet and frowned at the names on it. She hadn't heard anything about the Wildcats being back in town, yet she was seeing the names Baylor, Bolton, Cross, Danforth and Evans all over her roll call. She sighed and closed her eyes, leaning back in her overstuffed chair that was in the center of her stage. _It may be time to retire, _she thought with a sigh. _And if the Danforth boy is anything like his father who it appears he was named after I am in for a long year. _

She opened her eyes and watched as a few familiar faces floated it. She had a huge group of seniors last year so it was not shocking she had a bunch of new faces to learn. When the door opened again, she had to bite her tongue to not call out to the boy who led the group. He could be his father's twin. He was, in his very essence, Troy Bolton.

"Yo TJ!" The boy turned around and looked at a kid with an afro who had a basketball tucked under his arm.

"What CJ?" He asked tiredly.

"Hoops after school?" He waved his basketball in the air. _Yes they were Troy and Chad's children. There was no mistaking them. _TJ simply nodded and sat down in an empty seat, turning to face a dark skinned girl with long blonde curls.

"Excuse me, sir?" Cathleen Darbus pointed to the boy who was clearly Chad Danforth's child, "Hockey puck off the desk please. This is a place of learning."

The group of eight children who walked in together stared at the woman blankly. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Darbus, but did you just call CJ's basketball a hockey puck?"

"Yes I did and your name sir?"

"Jason Cross, but you can call me JJ." He gave her a smile, "How are you doing today ma'am?"

Returning students groaned and put their heads down. _Jason Cross's son. _"Yes I did JJ." Mrs. Darbus cleared her throat just as the late bell rang, "Alright everyone please settle down, let's call roll quickly." She picked a pen up off her side table and dabbed the tip of it on her tongue.

She started down her list, paying particular attention to the names that were familiar to her, but she hadn't heard in years.

"Cordelia Jane Baylor." She nodded to the blonde, _Clearly Sharpay and Zeke's daughter, _"Emma Rose Bolton." _The spitting image of Gabriella Montez with Troy's blue eyes, _"Samuel Lamar Bolton." _A Coach Bolton look-a-like, _"Troy Alexander Bolton."_Mr. Danforth's best friend, _"Jason Marcus Cross." "Chad Michael Danforth," _Same afro, same basketball, _"Christine Ann Evans and Ryan Michael Evans."

She continued with roll call until she had determined everyone was with them, "Alright, let me go over some basic rules for the year for those of us joining us for the first time." She glanced at the eight students who took up the back right corner of the room near the windows. "I am Mrs. Darbus and this is a place of learning and a temple of the arts. You may feel free to express yourself, as long as your cell phones are turned off. There will be no disruptions in my temple of the arts with new wave technology."

"Is she crazy?" Cordelia whispered towards Emma.

Emma nodded, "I think so."

"There is also no room for sporting equipment. That is for the gym and Coach Bolton."

"Actually, Mrs. Darbus," a hand went up, "Coach Bolton retired this year. Unc, I mean Coach Danforth has taken his place." Christine quietly spoke up from her place in the very back corner of the group.

"Ah thank you for enlightening us Miss Evans. And that segues us nicely into our next topic, announcements." Mrs. Darbus pulled a blue piece of paper up off the table next to her, "Tomorrow during free period will be club day in the theater. New students and returning students should drop by to see about the clubs and events happening this year. The school's pep assembly will be happening next Monday following cheerleading and band try outs this Wednesday if anyone is bold enough to audition."

"Is she serious?" RJ looked at his friends and sister.

"She is cra cra!" Cordelia whispered.

The ringing of the bell signaled the end of announcements and homeroom for the day. "I will see you all bright and early tomorrow morning!" Mrs. Darbus called out as the students fled her temple of the arts.

"Ok so Cordy, JJ, TJ and I have free period now. We're going searching." Emma linked her arm through Cordelia's "See you clowns at lunch." She waved to the younger members of their group who had to go find their classes. "Let's start in the science wing." She suggested.

"And how do we find that?" JJ asked.

"We go to Mom's classroom. She's teaching science, so why not?" Emma fished through her bag until she found the map her mother had drawn her of directions to her classroom from the lockers. Following the winding hallways of East High, they finally stopped in front of Gabriella's room. There was a class of younger students inside and they could see RJ in the back row, probably trying to go unnoticed. He really hated science.

"Okay so we're in the science wing, now what?" TJ spoke for the first time.

"Oh look he speaks." Cordelia tossed her hand over her heart dramatically.

"Cordy." Emma tossed a look her way, "Seriously leave it be." She moved off to the hallway corner so she wouldn't distract any classes and dropped her bag to the ground. She fished through it until she found her East High packet that had been mailed to the house the week before school started.

"You kept that?" JJ looked at her. "Why didn't you just keep the schedule?"

Emma opened up the bright red folder until she found what she was looking for, the school map, "Because it had this." She waved the thick paper in front of them as she opened it up to study. Cordelia rolled her eyes and began inspecting her nails, which were far more interesting. JJ couldn't really read the map so he stepped back and let TJ take his place.

"I think if we go that way there should be rooftop access." He spoke quietly to Emma, knowing the other two really weren't interested.

"Yeah it looks like it'll be a door on the right." Emma shut the map and picked up her bag. She and TJ silently led the way to the rooftop garden. It didn't take them long to locate it. Opening the door, Emma breathed out a silent breath of relief that an alarm didn't appear to go off. They walked up the metal staircase until they were out in the open.

"Wow." Cordelia spun out in the sunlight, "This is really cool."

"Definitely our new hang out." TJ dropped his bag and took Cordelia's hand, spinning her around, relishing in her giggles.

"I'll text everyone else direction so they can find it." Emma sat down on a bench in the sunlight and smiled when JJ propped her legs up on his lap. She got a text back from RJ immediately, "Your mom is so boring. Can't wait for lunch."

"Your mom is a boring science nerd." JJ laughed, poking Emma in the side, "Like Sammy is."

Emma rolled her eyes, "Hey I am just as much a nerd, I just think history is way more fun. I am so excited I'm in Aunt Annabel's class today."

JJ scrunched up his face, "I am so glad I am not in Mom's class."

Cordelia danced over to them, "Let's not talk about school; let's talk about our plan for lunch."

Emma straightened up and watched as TJ dragged the other bench over across from them and settled down with Cordy on his lap, "I think we should go through old yearbooks and see what we can find in the school archives about our parents. I also think we need to look into whoever owned the house we live in."

"Why?" TJ asked, playing with the tips of Cordelia's hair.

"Because I don't think the stories are true." Emma responded. The ringing of the bell stopped any further explanation, "I'll explain everything at lunch. Bring the books TJ and make sure Sammy brings the ones in his locker too. I want to divvy them up again." She stood up and took JJ's hand. "See y'all later." She waved, dragging her boyfriend down the steps with her.

HSMHSMHSM

Read & Review

XOXO

MAS


	5. Chapter 4

_Disclaimer: Clearly I do not own the High School Musical franchise_

**Chapter Four: Rooftop Lunch**

With heavy backpacks, Sammy, Emma and TJ made their way to the rooftop garden for lunch. "Took y'all long enough." Cordelia whined from her place on the floor the moment the door opened.

Emma and Sammy rolled their eyes as TJ sat down next o her murmuring, "I'm so sorry baby. I didn't mean to keep you waiting."

Emma scoffed, "It's no big deal though Cordy, I mean we just lugged a dozen books up here."

Cordelia shrugged and popped a grape in her mouth, "You know I don't do manual labor." She looked over at TJ and batted her eyes, cooing, "It's one of the reason you love me."

TJ nodded and kissed her, "You bet."

"Ugh, dude you're so whipped." CJ smacked his head.

"Whatever dude, so are you." TJ shot back.

Christine shook her head, much like her mother does, "Thankfully not like you TJ. I don't want a doormat for a boyfriend. I want a man." She smiled shyly at her boyfriend of four months, who pulled her onto his lap. She giggled.

RJ rolled his eyes, "Can we please just get to work? Cordy says you say the books aren't true. How'd you come up with that Ems?"

Emma smiled at RJ, "Thank you for asking Ry, and yes I did extra work and determined these books aren't true."

"Why?" TJ asked.

"Fact," Emma ticked off on her fingers, "Mom started at East High her junior year after winter break. Fact: Mom is not a dancer, no rhythm. Fact: Mom and Dad fell in love at a ski lodge in Colorado, not after college. Fact: Aunt Taylor is a lawyer not a doctor. Fact: Mom, Aunt Kelsi, Uncle Zeke and Uncle Jason went to East, not West High. Fact: Uncle Jason didn't meet Aunt Annabel until he went to U of A with Uncle Chad for college." Everyone just stared at her, "All of these facts are twisted in the books."

"Is anything else clearly wrong?" JJ asked her.

She shrugged, "Those are the majors ones I noted from the stories I read last night. I didn't get through all of them though."

Cordelia snapped her fingers dramatically getting everyone's attention. Emma and Sammy passed a knowing look and sighed, "Let's divide up the unread books and go through them individually tonight and bring them in tomorrow with a list of things that are clearly wrong."

JJ held up his hands in protest, "Wait Cordy, you're not seriously giving us more homework?" He protested.

She rolled her eyes, "Oh it's the first day Jason you so don't have any homework."

"But I don't want any if I can help it!" He whined.

"Babe, chill, we can work together, it won't be that bad." Emma tried to comfort him.

"But I hate reading." He continued to whine. Emma just rolled her eyes at her boyfriend.

HSMHSMHSM

Gabriella looked around the cafeteria. She smiled as the door opened and Chad walked in. He tossed is lunch on the table she'd claimed. "Anyone seen Darbus?"

That got her attention. "No, but all the kids have her for homeroom which is perfect. She is East High."

Chad took a bite out of his sandwich, "If we had to suffer then so should they."

"We talking about Darbus?" Sharpay and Kelsi came up to the table, "Zeke's picking Jase and Tay up, then they'll be here." She informed the table. "Where's Anna?"

"She's here!" Annabel called out, "Some old teacher thought I was a student and yelled at me for using my cell phone!"

"Darbus." Sharpay, Kelsi, Gabriella and Chad responded together.

"What about our favorite East High teacher?" Troy and Ryan came in together.

"She yelled at me." Annabel huffed.

"Who yelled at you baby?" Jason sat down next to his wife.

"Darbus. She was on her cell phone and though Anna was a student." Gabriella explained.

"So she hasn't changed then." Taylor piped up, picking up one of the cookies Zeke had placed in the middle of the table, "I wonder how the kids liked homeroom with her." She asked before taking a bite.

"I don't know." Gabriella looked around. "Where are the kids?" She continued to crane her neck as she glanced around the cafeteria. "They don't seem to be here."

Troy frowned as he picked up a cookie and broke it in half, handing a part of it to Gabriella, "That's weird. They should be in here."

"Unless they got a ton of different stares and decided to hang out in the gym." Chad pointed out.

"Or the theater." Sharpay piped up.

Gabriella shrugged, "Who knows. Hey, so has anyone been up to the rooftop garden? I've been itching to see how much it's changed."

Troy stood up, "Let's go then."

"But I haven't finished my lunch." Chad whined.

"Pack it up big boy. Let's go exploring." Taylor began picking up the remnants of her husband's lunch.

The group reached the metal door that led to the rooftop garden in no time, making their way through the halls as if they'd never left. "It's creepy how well we know our way around the school." Sharpay whispered as they climbed the stairs.

She went to say more, but Kelsi interrupted her by placing a silencing finger on her lips. "Listen." She mouthed.

The pushed the door at the top of the stares open just a crack so they could listen.

"I still think we should tell our parents." It was CJ's voice. "I think the police need to see these.

Sharpay pushed the door open a little bit more so they could just see their kids sprawled out in the sun surrounded by lunches and books. Gabriella went still. It was her worst nightmare come to life. Well maybe not her worst, but what she'd been dreading since they found a box of books in the basement. Her kids had their own box. _Great, now they're going to think we've lived these seriously messed up lives when everything has been completely normal for all of us. Or as normal as normal can be for Sharpay. _

"Chadwick, I said no! I want to know what all these books say." Cordelia was fighting with him.

"Then maybe you should try hauling them around for a while instead of making Emma, TJ and me do all the work." Sammy yelled back.

"You and TJ?" Emma's voice rose.

"I believe I was the one who figured out these were a load of crap. I was the one who did the extra work and then you two," she pointed at her brothers, "had the nerve to get pissed off at me. So do not go and complain about carrying a few books. I was the one who didn't sleep."

"Ems, calm down baby." JJ whispered in her ear, wrapping an arm around her waist in an effort to calm her.

"I will not calm down." She crossed her arms. "I think that I should get a say with what happens to these books. I've done all the work."

"I think we should all get a say." Christine's voice was soft, like her mother's, "They affect all of our lives, so we should all get a vote. And I'm with CJ. I vote we give them to our parents."

RJ nodded his head, "I'm with Christine."

"Of course you're with CJ. You're sleeping with him." Cordelia spat out.

Kelsi, Ryan, Chad and Taylor all took deep breaths.

"Keep breathing." Troy reminded them.

"Cordelia Jane Baylor you know that's not true! You're only saying that because you saw us making out once." Now Christine was on her feet and she was seriously mad. "And you're saying that to hide the fact that you and TJ have sex whenever you get a chance. You're like to bunnies always humping each other."

Zeke's hand clamped over Sharpay's mouth before she could let out a screech. Gabriella grabbed the metal railing for support. This was more than they needed to know.

"Okay all of this," Emma gestured around her, "is getting us nowhere. Now we all know that TJ and Cordy are having sex. And we also know that they're the only ones. And Cordelia knows that she needs to stop accusing everyone of doing what she's doing. Correct Cordelia?"

"Ugh!" Cordelia screeched, "Will you please pretend to defend me TJ?" She looked at her boyfriend.

TJ just raised his hands, "Look I don't want us to fight. I think these books are more than we can handle." Cordelia looked ready to lunge at him. "Don't Cordy. You know that it was a bad idea keeping these from our parents to begin with."

"You're agreeing with your sister instead of me?"

Emma cleared her throat, "If you'd been listening, you would've realized that I have not given an opinion on the matter yet, but yes I am inclined to give them to our parents. I mean after all they're about them, not us."

RJ spoke up, "Let's just take them home and sit our parents down tonight and tell them we found them while cleaning out the attic and didn't know what to do with them."

CJ nodded, "Finally a sensible idea." He stood up, "The bell will ring soon, let's head to our lockers."

"We need to go." Taylor turned, leading the group of original Wildcats down the steps. The group of now adults, ran like teenagers escaping trouble out to the hallway. They came to a screeching halt in front of Darbus.

"So the Wildcats have returned." She looked around at the group. They were all older. Chad's afro had been contained, there was no longer a basketball tucked under his arm. Kelsi wore contacts instead of glasses. Gabriella's hair was in a conservative bob. Troy had lost the side sweep and had a shorter hairstyle. As did Jason. Ryan was no longer in flamboyant clothing, instead he was in kakhis and a blue button down without a hat. Everyone looked older. Everyone looked more mature.

"Mrs. Darbus!" Troy smiled at the woman and pulled her into a hug. Whether everyone realized it or not, she'd been his saving grace. She'd kept him near Gabriella for college so they could eventually get married and have the beautiful family he had now.

"Well, well, well if it isn't Troy Bolton." She looked down at Gabriella, "And you must be Gabriella Bolton now."

Gabriella nodded and leaned up to reach Mrs. Darbus, "Mrs. Darbus it is so good to see you again."

"You as well Mrs. Bolton. I hear you're teaching science."

She nodded, "Yes and Chad is the new P.E. coach and this is Annabel Cross, Jason's wife, she's the new history teacher." Gabriella formally introduced the two.

"Well it is very nice to see you again Mrs. Cross." Mrs. Darbus acknowledged their earlier cell phone run in. She paused, "Well it looks like I have your offspring in my homeroom." She glanced at Chad sideways, "How did I get so lucky?"

Taylor giggled as Chad blanched, "I think they're the ones who were lucky Mrs. Darbus. We're thrilled that they have you as a homeroom teacher."

Mrs. Darbus actually blushed at the compliment, "Well they seem like fine young children. And we're happy to have them here at East High. I'm assuming we have some basketball stars."

Troy, Jason and Chad all nodded, "Oh yeah, TJ, Sammy, JJ and CJ are definitely trying out for the team this year."

"And I hear you are the coach Mr. Danforth."

Chad nodded, "Yes ma'am, but I promise to remain objective."

Mrs. Darbus nodded and was going to respond, but her attention was drawn elsewhere, "Ah the Young Wildcats have arrived."

"Mrs. Darbus," Emma piped up, "it's so nice to see you again. I'm Emma Bolton." She failed to notice her parents standing next to her homeroom teacher.

"Oh Miss Bolton I know exactly who you are. Don't you want to say hello to your parents?" Mrs. Darbus motioned next to her.

All eyes fell towards the Original Wildcats. "Mom. Dad." Emma stuttered out.

"Hey Ems." Troy stepped forward and hugged his daughter.

TJ took an awkward step back, "Um what are y'all doing here?" He asked rubbing his neck.

Taylor rolled her eyes, "Don't worry we were all leaving. Now scatter off to class." She leaned over and gave Chad a kiss goodbye, "See you tonight. Come on Zeke and Jason." Ryan, Troy, Sharpay and Kelsi followed suit, waving goodbye to everyone, trying not to embarrass their kids who were garnering weird stares from fellow students in the halls.

"Mom's right. Let's go to class." CJ held his hand out to Christine and waved goodbye to everyone else. "Remember what we talked about." He called out over his shoulder.

Cordelia rolled her eyes, "Fine y'all win. I give. Just this once though, don't get used to it."

HSMHSMHSM

Gabriella sat in her classroom at the end of the day looking down at her phone. Taylor had sent out a giant mass text demanding dinner at their place with all the kids. She wanted the box of books. Gabriella rubbed her temples. She knew if Taylor demanded the books Cordelia would more than likely start a fight. And TJ would jump in to protect her. Gabriella let out a groan and dropped her head to her desk. Her little boy was having sex. Her little boy was having sex with Sharpay's little girl. It was so much more than she ever wanted to know. She groaned again.

"That won't stop them from humping like gorillas tonight."

Gabriella's head shot up and her eyes narrowed at Chad, who was standing in her doorway, dangling car keys ready to go.

"Anna is already at the car. Come on, I'll even let you change before I drag you home to deal with Tay so I don't have to."

"Pussy." Gabriella muttered, ignoring the look on Chad's face as she rose and led the way down the now empty hallway towards the teachers' parking lot.

HSMHSMHSM

When Chad's car pulled into the driveway, Troy, Ryan, Sharpay, Kelsi, Jason and Zeke were already there. As were all the children. Annabel sighed, "Think Tay's attacked the kids already."

"I think I'm more worried about what Shar is going to do to TJ and Cordy when she gets them alone. I mean it's not shocking they're sleeping together. Troy and I did it at Lava Springs and I'd only known him a few months. They've known each other for sixteen years." Gabriella groaned, "This is too much. I have a headache."

Chad cut the engine, "Yeah well nothing is ever easy with Sharpay. She's probably got them in a bathroom, locked up giving a safe sex tutorial. Remember when she and Zeke thought she was pregnant senior year. The last thing she wants is to go through that with Cordelia."

"When you make sense, you know shit is serious." Annabel opened the car door. "Let's get this dinner over with."

When the three walked into the house, they were met with silence, "Backyard." Chad muttered, dropping his briefcase on the entryway table. He led the way out the side door to the backyard. Everything seemed fairly normal. The kids were playing basketball and the adults were hovering around the grill and cooler.

"Thank God you're here. Troy and Zeke wouldn't let me do anything about TJ and Cordy until you got here. Something about you needing to be involved." She grabbed Gabriella's hand, "Even though I'm sure it was Cordelia who seduced TJ. I mean she is my spitting image." She rolled her eyes, "And TJ is a prude like you."

"Gee thanks so much Pay. Definitely feeling the love. And can't I have a beer before I figure this out in my head?"

"Here baby." Troy was already by her side with a Corona in tow, "Drink up."

"Thanks." She took a long sip, "So, have they said anything about the books yet?"

"Who the fuck cares about the books?" Sharpay whispered, "What about the sex? So help me God if Cordelia gets herself pregnant,"

"Shar, chill baby." Zeke handed her another beer, "Let's focus on the books and approach the sex thing when it's an issue. We've had the safe sex talk with her."

"Correction I had the safe sex talk with her." Sharpay pointed to herself.

"Actually I had to do damage control behind you. Your," Zeke cleared his throat, "demonstration, scarred her. I had to actually explain the details to her."

Sharpay frowned, "Whatever. I did my due diligence. And now she's acting like,"

"Like you." Taylor pointed out. Sharpay let out a 'humph' sound, but chose not to respond.

HSMHSMHSM

An hour later, the group was scattered on blankets in the Danforth backyard, munching on the remnants of Zeke's dessert. The kids were unusually quiet, and the adults knew it had to do with the books. From the tail end of their lunch argument, it seemed that they were going to confess to finding them. After about five minutes of silence, Emma spoke up, "So um, everyone, we sort of, um, found something." She paused.

"Books." JJ picked up, "We found books in the attic and we um, think you should have them. They're creepy."

Corey smiled and whispered, "They're about you guys." Her voice could barely be heard over the crickets in the backyard. "From when y'all were in high school and stuff."

"They look like diaries." Elena added.

TJ returned a moment later, no one had even noticed him get up, with a cardboard box that looked just like the one the adults had found in the basement days before. "I think you guys should look at these."

HSMHSMHSM

Read & Review

XOXO

MAS


	6. Chapter 5

_Disclaimer: I do not own the High School Musical franchise_

**Chapter Five: The Revelation **

The group of adults looked at each other trying to silently decide who would speak first. The person to speak first was more than likely going to have to address the entire situation. Troy cleared his throat, _better me than Chad, _he figured. "So tell us about what you found." He requested.

"Well," Emma stepped forward, taking control of the situation, "they're books. Just like we said. They're handwritten and they're fiction."

Troy nodded, waiting for her to continue.

"It's more than that though," TJ took over, "They're about you guys." He pointed around to all of the adults. "They're stories about your lives."

"But you're sure they're not true stories?" Gabriella glanced at each of her three children in turn.

"Definitely not." Sammy picked up a book and flipped through it, "In this book you dated Uncle Ryan, you went to West High, and you met dad in New York way after college. And those are just three of the stories." Gabriella sighed in relief.

"Yeah they're all about you guys but they're all different. A lot of them have similar plots but they vary ever so slightly. Mostly they center around you guys singing in a musical and Aunt Shar, no offense but you don't come off well in most of them." CJ handed Sharpay a book as she huffed.

"I am not a drama queen." She crossed her arms, dropping the book and stepping on it.

Jason rolled his eyes, "Yeah you are Shar. In fact your character is probably the most accurate of all of them."

"No kidding." Emma laughed before looking at Jason, "Wait how do you know what her character is like?"

Troy scratched the back of his neck before sighing, "We found a box in the basement and took them to the police station. We should probably take these books too." He leaned over and picked up the one Sharpay had stepped on while she wasn't acting like a drama queen and wiped the dirt off.

Jason closed the lid to the box as he spoke, "And you kids should probably go with us and tell officers where you found them."

"Wait," Elena held up her hand, "Emma mentioned the police but I thought she was exaggerating. Are these really that bad?"

Gabriella sighed and sat down on one of the chairs around the table, "Kids, these stories are not true, but they're about us. And they have some very personal details in them. Some of which are true. And I don't like the fact that someone was clearly watching us. Years ago someone started obsessing over us to the point that they wrote fiction about us."

Christine took a seat too, "You know there's this kind of fiction that is about movies and tv shows and books. It's called Fan Fiction. This," she waved a book around, "kind of reminds me of it. Only whoever wrote it was a fan of you." She pointed around the table at their parents as she set the book back down.

"Well if all this stuff is old, what can the police really do about it?" Sammy looked over at his dad, who'd moved to stand behind his mother.

"I don't know son, but it's more than what we can do, that's for sure." Troy responded.

"Babe, did you get the deed to the house?" Gabriella looked up at her husband.

He nodded, "Yeah and the records for every house own. The house has been for sale a lot. It's like owners don't like it. With the exception of one set of names." He held up his hand, "Let me go get the documents."

Within two minutes Troy was back laying sheets of paper on the picnic table. He began pointing, "The O'Conner's owned the house while we were in elementary school, then they left and a series of owners held the house for sometimes just weeks at a time and then the O'Conner's took it again our junior year," he looked down at his wife, "the year you joined us. They were here for two years and then it's gone back to the series of other random owners."

"So who are the O'Conners?" JJ spoke up.

Troy shrugged, "I don't know. I don't remember them."

"Me neither." Chad scratched his head. "You'd think they'd have been boosters or something."

"You can check those records right Dad?" CJ asked his father.

Chad nodded, "Yeah, I can."

Ryan leaned back, "I don't recognize that name from the social register either, do you Shar?" He looked at his twin sister who was eying TJ and Cordelia, clearly not listening. "Well I can check Lava Springs records to see if they were ever members."

"They probably were." Jason shoved his hands in his pockets.

"Why is that counselor?" Taylor crossed her arms.

"Because they know so much about us. They were probably everywhere and we just had no idea." Jason shrugged, "I mean how else would they know so much and where else would their fixation come from?"

"You know I wonder where they were when they weren't here." Kelsi piped up for the first time. "Like where were they while we were finishing elementary school, in middle school and our first two years of high school? And where did they go when we left for college? We all went different places. And how many of them were there?"

Gabriella shivered, "Okay this is starting to scare me. Maybe the books have nothing to do with the O'Conners, maybe they were just done by a bunch of kids in our class as a joke that never got told and we just happened to stumble upon them." She stood up putting the few books that were scattered on the table in the box and lifting it up. She walked away without another word.

Once she was inside, Gabriella shoved the books in the downstairs hall closet and trudged up the steps, shutting her bedroom door. Curling up on the bed she closed her eyes. "Brie?" She knew Troy was standing in their bedroom doorway, just as she knew pointing out how creepy all of this was to the kids was a bad idea. She kept her eyes closed and her mouth shut. "Brie, I know when you're sleeping and when you're pretending to sleep. I even know when you're pretending to sleep because you're tired or because you're avoiding or because you're hoping if you pretend I'll wake you up in a more fun way. I've known you a long time. I've slept with you a long time."

"I don't want to talk about it Troy." She mumbled.

"Hey everyone was freaked out before you said anything. You just said what we were all thinking." She felt the bed shift as he sat down next to her.

Sitting up suddenly she turned to glare at him, "Okay you want to know what I was thinking?" He nodded, "I was thinking that what if they were following all of us. I mean what if they saw you and Chad and Sharpay and Ryan and then went off and followed Taylor and Kelsi and Anna and me. I was thinking what if they pulled the strings to get us all here. I was thinking what if I've never been actually alone my entire life?" She leaned her head onto his shoulder, "I was thinking what if I didn't have the wonderful childhood I thought I had, what if they were trying to make some of those fantasies play out into real life. What if they put us together."

"Hey now, you know it doesn't matter why we're together," Troy wrapped his arms around her, "all that matters is that I found you. No matter how. I found you against all odds. And you're mine now. And you'll never be anyone else's. Just like I'll never belong to anyone else either." He kissed her temple.

She sighed and rubbed her eyes, "I still don't like it. I still think there's way more to the story than we can even imagine."

Troy rubbed her back gently, "I know, but think about it this way, we've all got each other through this. And no matter what happens you have me. No matter what we find out, you'll always have me. I love you Gabriella. I have since the moment I heard you sing in that stupid club. You're my everything. You and our three monsters."

She chuckled, "They are monsters, aren't they."

"Big terrors. I think the more pressing situation is Cordelia and TJ."

Gabriella groaned, "I don't want to think about it. Ever." She dug her head into Troy's chest.

"I don't think that's going to make them stop having sex babe. In fact if we do that we may end up grandparents."

Gabriella shot back and screeched, "Troy Alexander Bolton, Sr. I am far too young to be a grandparent. I don't even have wrinkles yet andI will not let TJ or Cordelia throw their lives away by having children while they're in high school!"

"You know?!" TJ, Emma and Sammy stood in the doorway of their parents' bedroom door.

"Well shit." Troy muttered.

"Troy." Gabriella smacked her husband, "Language."

"How do you know?" TJ stepped forward hesitantly.

Gabriella sighed and looked at Troy who scratched the back of his neck nervously, "We were going to have lunch in the rooftop garden but you were there and we overheard you discussing how you've deflowered my princess." Sharpay stood next to them with Cordelia and Zeke meekly behind her.

"Oh come on Sharpay it's not like Cordelia didn't want it." Troy waved his hand towards his goddaughter.

Sharpay stepped forward, "Are you insinuating that my daughter is a whore?"

"Whoa, Shar." Zeke put his hand on her arm, stopping her advance.

"Are you insinuating my son takes advantage of innocent girls?" Troy stood up.

"Troy." Gabriella grabbed his waist.

"Mom! Dad!" Cordelia and TJ both stepped in between their parents.

"We decided on this together." TJ looked at his dad and his Aunt Sharpay. "We both wanted it."

Cordelia wrapped her arms around TJ's waist, "I love him Momma. He's a great guy Daddy. You both love him and you love Aunt Gabi and Uncle Troy. He's the one. He's it."

"But Princess how can you know he's it you're only seventeen." Zeke looked down at his daughter.

"And how old were you when you fell in love with Mom?" Cordelia put her hands on her hips.

"Fifteen. Although she never spoke to me until I was sixteen and wouldn't date me until I was seventeen." He glanced at his tiny blonde wife. Who just shrugged her shoulders as if to say, tough luck you finally got me right?

"Okay so it's settled," Gabriella let go of Troy, "we're not going to stop you guys but we are going to discuss precautions in further detail." TJ and Cordelia nodded, "You two can go now." Gabriella dismissed them, trying not to laugh at their relieved faces as they scattered off. "Now Sharpay, Troy, can we please get along. It's not like this isn't normal. We slept together in high school. Fuck the four of us have done some pretty kinky shit together." Her husband and two friends cringed, "Do we remember graduation night? Do we remember how drunk we were? Do we remember what the four of us did in the hot tub?"

"We decided we weren't ever going to talk about that again Gabriella." Troy looked down at his wife and then up at Zeke before averting his eyes.

Sharpay and Gabriella shrugged, "Wasn't awkward for us." Sharpay sang out, grinning at Troy as she pressed her body into Zeke's.

"I think I've proved my point, there's no way they're doing any worse than we've done." Gabriella nodded her head as they gave into her statement.

"Fine, it's dropped for now." Troy looked from his wife to Sharpay, avoiding Zeke's gaze. "Let's go back downstairs."

When the four rejoined the group they found everyone in the kitchen eating the brownies Gabriella had made, "I swear Gabs these are better than your mom's." Chad complimented her with a mouthful of brownie that was trying to ooze its way out.

Taylor shuddered, "I cannot believe I married you."

"I can't believe you had kids with it." Anna grimaced, "I mean how do you kiss it let alone have sex with it?"

"Oh God, please no Mom!" JJ covered his ears.

"No more sex talk tonight please." Zeke moaned, putting his head on the counter.

"How about no more sex talk ever." Christine looked at everyone, "Seriously, is that all you guys think about." She grimaced. RJ laughed at his girlfriend and she maturely chose to stick her tongue out at him.

_At least some of our kids are still babies, _Gabriella thought with a sigh as she leaned into Troy, _and tomorrow we'll deal with the boxes and the O'Conners. _

**Read & Review!**

**XOXO**

**MAS**


	7. Chapter 6

_Disclaimer: I do not own the High School Musical franchise_

**Chapter Six: The Perfect Storm**

The caravan of cars parked in front of the police station for the second time since the Wildcats moved back to Albuquerque. "We need a bus to haul all of our asses around." Chad muttered as he slammed his car door shut, waiting for Taylor and their kids to follow them.

"Honestly, language Chad." Taylor whacked her husband upside the head.

He cringed but chose to ignore her, instead calling out to Jason, "Hey hold the door Jase!"

"If you'd pick up the pace you'd be here already. Seriously Chad you drive like a grandma and you walk like one too."

"Guys this box is heavy can we get moving?" Troy called from the doorway.

"Well if the Wildcats aren't back." Officer Chris Moses stood by the front desk of the police headquarters grinning at them, "And with more books it seems."

"We've got more than that Chris." Gabriella floated up next to him and placed a kiss on his cheek, "Meet our kids." Her hand waved over the massive group of teenagers that followed them into the headquarters.

Chris whistled, "Y'all do have quite a few, come on let's head into the conference room." He gestured that the group should follow them down the hall. "Everyone can go ahead and take a seat." He moved around the room until he was at the head of the conference table, "Can't say I ever thought I'd see the Wildcats in a police station twice in one week."

"Well we thought we'd pass on the books the kids found." Troy pushed the box towards Chris, "And show you the paperwork from the house I pulled out of the safe." He began laying the paperwork out on the conference room table. "The house was owned by the O'Conners off and on our entire lives. They've come and gone and bought and sold the house over the years. When they don't own it random families own it. Sometimes for just a week at a time."

Chris whistled as he looked through the papers, "This is what I've come up with. To be honest I haven't done too much checking yet. I just convinced my sergeant that this was worth looking into. He said y'all hadn't received a direct threat so it wasn't our job to investigate."

Sharpay let out a dramatic yell before saying, "Stalking isn't a threat?"

Cordelia placed her hands on her hips and moved to stand by her mother, "Show me where he is and I'll tell him how scary all this is."

Chris chuckled, "I'm guessing you're Sharpay and Zeke's daughter."

Cordelia crossed her arms and straightened, "I am Cordelia Jane Baylor."

"What a name. She's gorgeous Shar." Chris patted Sharpay's back and sent her flying forward on her four inch heels. Sharpay straightened and glared at him.

"Naturally. She's my daughter." She replied stiffly.

Chris rolled his eyes, "Drama queen." He muttered before turning back to Troy and Gabriella, who were clearly in charge. "Let me go through these books and run a background check on the O'Conners and see what that comes up with. That's our next step. In the meantime try not to worry, after all y'all haven't been threatened, you're just shaken up."

Gabriella nodded, "Thank you Chris. How about a BBQ on Saturday night? Bring the wife and kids? At our place. You've got our address now after all."

Chris grinned and rocked back on his heels, "Janae and I would like that a lot. Let's do it."

Kelsi grinned and clapped her hands together, "Let's say four?" She nudged Ryan in the ribs and he nodded his agreement.

"Four it is then." Chris held his hand out to Troy who gave him a firm handshake. "I'll keep you updated man."

"We appreciate it." Troy opened up the conference room door, "Come on kids, let's get home. Y'all still have school tomorrow."

Cordelia whipped around to look at her dad, her brown eyes widening as she said, "But Daddy, after all that's happened today,"

Zeke held up his hands interrupting her, "You're still going to school tomorrow." He looked away from her to avoid getting sucked into the puppy dog eyes, "And don't give me that look." He exited the room, indicating to his wife and daughter they should follow suit.

HSMHSMHSM

After a meeting with his assistant coaches the next morning, Troy flipped his laptop open on his desk and turned it on, _Let's just see what a google search of the O'Conners turns up._ He drummed his fingers on his desk as he waited for the Mac to light up and connect to the wireless that ran through the gym building at University of Albuquerque. He glanced out the window at the rain clouds rolling in. It was going to be a big storm today.

He picked his phone up and typed a quick text to Gabriella, "Drive safely today babe, looks like a bad storm."

He leaned forward and opened Safari switching the browser over to Google he typed in "O'Conners Albuquerque, New Mexico" and hit enter. His phone made a quiet ping and he glanced down, "You too love. I'll make sure the kids know to drive slowly." He turned back to his computer and hummed quietly to himself as he scrolled down. The first few pages seemed to be different people named O'Conner who still lived around. There were Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, and specific addresses from sites like Spokeo. "Creepy." He muttered under his breath.

He leaned back contemplating how to be more specific in his search. He spun in his chair for a moment wishing he was from the technology generation so he would know what to do. The truth was he could barely text on his phone, work a television remote and turn on a computer, much less do an internet stalking search. Looking back at his screen, he decided to flip through the pages and skim what his options were.

Page twenty-four caught his eye.

HSMHSMHSM

Ryan shook hands with his new general manager, Scott Lee before gesturing to the door, "You're doing a great job here Scott. Don't worry about me taking over. I'm not planning on making any sudden changes and as far as I can tell your job is secure."

The forty-seven year old tipped his head, "Thanks Mr. Evans. Working for your dad was wonderful, I'll sure miss him."

Ryan tried not to roll his eyes. Sharpay got her dramatic side from their parents, they were both a little over the top. "He's a great guy. I hope I don't run this place into the ground." He chuckled as he opened the door.

"Have a good day Mr. Evans." Scott meandered slowly through the doorway.

Shutting the door Ryan shook his head as he sat back down, "Alrighty, onto the O'Conners." He tapped his fingers on his desk as he pulled up the member registry online, entering the passwords all along the way. It'd be simpler just to go through the member book that had names and contact information, but on the staff's server he could get member numbers, banking information, purchases and when they became members. "So much more information." He muttered as his fingers flew across the keypad.

"Jackpot!" He pounded his fist on his desktop.

His office door flew open, "Mr. Evans are you alright?" His secretary, Paige Luedecke, looked frazzled by his outburst.

He nodded his head and waved her out of the room, "Fine, Paige." Shaking her head, the sixty-four year old woman shut the door and left him alone.

HSMHSMHSM

Taylor picked up her office phone and punched in Jason's number, she waited four rings before the receptions, "Purcell, Flanagan and Anderson, this is Marge how may I help you?"

"Hi Marge I need to speak to Jason Cross please." Taylor motioned for the young law clerk at the District Attorney's office where she worked to come in.

"May I ask who's calling please?" Marge requested.

"Taylor Danforth from the D.A.'s office." Even though it may make Jason look bad, she knew it was the quickest way to get her call through."

"One moment please." Taylor tried not to chuckle as she heard Marge fumble with the phone to get the call switched over.

"Thank you Alex." She gave the young clerk a smile as she accepted the file he handed her.

"Seriously Tay, you have to say you're from the D.A.'s office? You can't just say, 'it's his friend Taylor Danforth'? Are you trying to make me look bad?"

Taylor laughed, "It makes me a priority when I make you look like a hardened criminal. It could be worse, I could be calling form the jail." She wound the telephone cord around her finger absently as she spoke.

"You may be worse, you're calling from the office that prosecutes hardened criminals." Jason laughed as he said it though. "So what's up?"

"I was wanted to pick your brain about an ethics question." Taylor leaned forward and propped her chin up, "Would it be bad if I did some research in our databases about the O'Conners?"

She could almost see Jason shrug casually, a habit he developed in middle school, "Nah, it's not like you're submitting subpoenas or anything so why not."

Taylor nodded, "I was hoping you'd say that cause I have something interesting."

"So you've already looked then?" She could hear the excitement in Jason's voice.

Taylor glanced at her screen, "Yeah and you won't believe what I've found on them."

HSMHSMHSM

Gabriella jumped at the loud crack of thunder that followed the bright flash of lightening. Her eyes traveled up to the lights as they flickered. She took a steadying breath, _Thunderstorms are the worst. _She glanced at her class, "And that is all over pi." She finished writing the equation for the conversion she was teaching on the board. The bell sounding stopped her, "Okay everyone, wait don't race me to the door you'll hurt my feelings and you guys have homework tonight." She tapped on the blackboard at the pages to read and the problems they were to solve, "Summer is over." She sang out as her AP Chem class groaned collectively.

"Hey Mrs. Bolton why don't you let them go to lunch rather than torturing them with chemistry problems?"

Gabriella glanced up and found Chad standing in her doorway spinning a basketball on the tip of his finger. She put her hands on her hips and said, "Mr. Danforth this is a place of learning not a hockey arena." She tried not to giggle as Chad's complexion grew considerably paler and he tucked the ball under his arm. Facing her class again, she waved goodbye and rolled her eyes as they raced each other to the door.

Another clap of thunder made her jump, "Seriously Gabs you're worse than a dog."

Gabriella spun around and glowered at him, "Are you calling me a dog Chadwick?"

Chad's eyes widened as he held his hands up in a 'time-out' motion shaking his head, "No ma'am. I'm not sure who would hurt me worse. You, Troy or Emma."

Gabriella placed her chalk back on the board and flipped her light off, "Probably Troy, now come on, let's find the kids and warn them to drive safely this afternoon."

When she and Chad walked into the cafeteria, they found their kids missing, even as Annabel and Kelsi sat waiting. "Where were y'all?" Annabel asked as she opened up her brown bag.

"Chad was distracting my class." Gabriella sent a playful glare Chad's way, "Where are the kids, surely they're not on the rooftop garden in this weather." She glanced at the storm that was in full force outside. It was so dark it looked like nighttime.

"No idea." Chad mumbled as he chewed on his sandwich.

Kelsi shrugged, "Maybe they took over the theater. They weren't in the chorus room when I left."

HSMHSMHSM

"Oh my God Emma how many yearbooks are we going to look through?" Cordelia whined from her spot on the floor in the quiet room of the library. They were the only ones in the section and the librarian who loved to hush everyone didn't seem to frequent it too much.

"We need to get all the O'Conners we can find."

"But if they owned a house they weren't our parents' ages." CJ pointed out.

"They were probably our grandparents' ages and that's how they knew who our parents were." Sammy sat up straight, "We need older yearbooks, come on TJ let's go get a stack."

Gabriella stopped, "Wait? Look at this, it's from our parents' senior year, 'Tiara Gold - FF Club.'" She flipped the yearbook around so everyone could see it.

"What does that even mean?" Cordelia leaned back against the wall, "Let the boys go get more books, you have nothing Emma."

Emma rolled her eyes, "FF Club - FanFiction Club?"

Christine cocked her head to the side, "But her last name isn't O'Conner, do you really think it means anything."

"Um dudes, Jimmie Zara and Donnie Dion were apart of the FF Club and they were on the basketball team with our dads." JJ looked at the group, "Maybe Ems is right."

"You're just saying that cause she's your girlfriend." Cordelia whined.

"Will you stop using that excuse!" Emma groaned and threw herself completely on the ground.

"Let's just look through these yearbooks." Sammy and TJ stood over her, "You never know what we could find."

Sammy distributed the yearbooks from the eighties around, "Let's get started."

HSMHSMHSM

XOXO

MAS


End file.
